Latest Zach News:

- Talking a lot!!! We can carry on conversations with him and understand a lot of what he says. This is such a wonderful thing for all of us.

- Doing more pretend play with toys other than trucks. He likes playing with dolls, kitchen toys and stuffed animals, but only for about 5 minutes a day. The rest of the time is still devoted to trucks/trains/cars.

- Really, really wants to go to school, so he might be going to preschool this fall. He just wants to play with the other kids!

- Becoming a good helper around the house: picking up things, cleaning up little spills and messes, helping make dinner.

posted by Elena

Zachary

On Saturday Zach and I decided to go outside and hang up some new bird feeders - the squirrels pretty much destroyed the ones we had up - and play for a bit. It was pretty nice outside: the sun was shining and it wasn't very windy and maybe in the 20's or even 30's, I'm not sure. Anyway, Zachary pushed his toy trucks up the driveway and back down the driveway and back and forth repeatedly. Then he played in the snow for a little bit. Then down on the ground to check out the wheels of his toy trucks. Then running up and down the drive again. This went on for about 45 minutes, and then he was ready to come inside. About 15 minutes after we got in, Scott and I noticed he was awfully quiet, and there he was, asleep on the chair. He slept so soundly that I don't think he even moved the entire time! What a good workout!

Zachary has a strong aversion to having his picture taken,
so this one is indeed a very rare one:

He would only look my general direction
because there was a movie on behind me and
I asked him about the characters in it!

Today I tried to get a picture of him, and he started screaming NO!!! and crying as though he was being attacked. And then he ran and hid under his blankets. I'm not sure what the problem is, but no pictures of Zach today...

posted by Elena

Latest Madeline Happenings

- Walking across an entire room!

- Talking more and more and lots of babbling

- Recently got through a nasty bout of teething. One month ago she had 6 total teeth (4 top, 2 bottom). Now she has all her molars and all the middle teeth. She's only missing like 6 or so that I can tell. It was sure a tough time for her... Much happier now!

- Finally heavy enough to officially be in the "big girl" car seat, which is a forward-facing toddler seat. Today was the first day of this arrangement, and she really liked facing forward, but thought that if anyone looked at her, then they should hand her a cookie (no kidding).

posted by Elena

Madeline

This weekend we decided that since it's just starting to warm up to the 20's, we'd venture out for a bit. Run the kids out so they sleep a lot (especially at night). We couldn't find Olivia's old hat, and I refused to buy another one, so I wrapped my hat/scarf combo around her, and it did the trick. I just thought it was so precious around her cute little round face!

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She has started walking more and more this week.

Now she's getting so that she'll walk across an entire room!
What's really cute is that we'll clap for her and then she'll start laughing and clapping and become so distracted by the celebrating that she ends up falling down! It's so cute!!!

posted by Elena

Latest Olivia Quote:

On being asked on whether she was planning to have babies someday when she is older:

No, I'm going to have medium kids. Like me!!!

posted by Elena

"Princess" Olivia

Olivia went down to Grandma's house this weekend. She put in her request to play dress-up and Grandma thought and thought and then remembered that she had a dress that was worn by Aunt Erin when she was a flower girl in a wedding. Olivia saw this dress and just absolutely fell in love! I'm going to guess that she wore it all weekend long - she just loved it that much! Livi was not too happy that we had to leave it at Grandma's house. But what she doesn't know is that hanging in her closet are 3 flower girl dresses that her own mama wore as a flower girl in weddings, one of them matches this dress! Maybe she'll get an opportunity to play with them someday...

Twirling

posted by Elena

Scott and Elena Updates:

Scott has been busy working at the bank these days. Then he gets to come home to his loving family and straight after dinner he gives the kids a bath. He has found that he enjoys bathtime because the kids just play in there and he can sit and read in the bathroom while they're bathing. So he's read through several of his Dilbert books and just recently started reading The Catcher in the Rye by JD Salinger. He says it's a pretty good book and is already about halfway through it!

Elena: I hurt my back at work in October and was off for a month, returned to work and then re-injured my back in December! So off for another month - this actually is quite stressful as my position is not benefit-eligible, including sick-pay. So now I've been working a ton of hours to try to make up a bit from those missed months. In my spare time I've been doing a lot of reading. I recently finished The Kite Runner and A Thousand Splendid Suns, both by Khaled Hosseini. These two books were excellent! They were both insightful and haunting stories about life in Afghanistan. I just cannot say enough about how much I really enjoyed these books! I highly recommend them if you get the chance.

posted by Elena

'Bout Time We Put Up Some Pictures!

Maddie loves her Dance, Monkey, Dance toy!
Now this is entertainment!!!

Shocking picture:
Zach playing with a truck!
I can't believe how fast he can run
bent over the truck like this!

You can see that she's had a haircut.
Yes, that's right, we went and sought the services of...
Olivia!!!
So she cut one side of her hair with kid scissors
(and now I know why those really aren't
appropriate in a beauty shop!).
And then to even it out I was forced to cut the other side...
It's actually not that bad; just doesn't look quite right.

posted by Elena

Zach, smile for the camera!

Finally caught him!

Here they are dancing.
And yes, it really is winter in Minnesota -
like below zero wind-chills and tons of snow outside.
But here are our children wearing practically nothing!

Maddie isn't having so much fun,
and decides that she needs to leave the toy room!
She is NOT a happy little girl here.

posted by Elena

Maddie really likes to read books!
So she just crawls up onto the futon and looks
through any book that's sitting up there!
Here it was Richard Scarry!

Here you can see Livi smiling her pretty smile,
and there's Maddie reading on the futon behind her!

posted by Elena

Maddie has decided that she absolutely will not eat if someone offers to help her! She has to do it by herself. This is one of the first feedings with this arrangement. She quickly learned to not flip the spoon over to get it into her mouth! But a lot ended up on her bib anyway. She's gotten much neater in this area too! What a big girl!!!

Eating sweet potatoes:

Sometimes it is just quicker to pick
up the jar and just "drink" your dinner!

posted by Elena

These pictures were taken about a month ago. Livi and Zach were dying to go outside and Maddie cooperated and took a nap so they could get out for a bit. It was also warm enough to be out for a bit. This winter has been just too cold to be out for long, and the kids cannot wait until springtime! Since these pictures we have gotten more snow, too...

Zach was desperate to get into his truck
and play for a bit. Too bad he couldn't actually go
anywhere! But he had a blast anyway!

Olivia hopped into her sled and then said:
"Okay guys, I'm ready for a sled ride!"
expecting us to just pull her around the yard!

posted by Elena

Olivia LOVES wearing clothes that she has gotten
from Grandma Watson! Here she is wearing a
collection of her favorites from Grandpa and Grandma!

Livi has discovered that she LOVES glue
when working on art projuects!

"Playing" the recorder

Maddie really likes to crawl into this small little
space between our computer and entertainment system,
and then sits on this little box between the two.

posted by Elena

A Busy Day

Today turned out to be kind of a busy day. First thing this morning the girls had a doctor's appointment for their well-child checks. Zach decided to come along for the fun, too. We got there and got right in, which is a bit unusual, but way nice! Then the girls were weighed and measured. Zachary, not wanting to be left out, was also weighed and temperature taken. Here's today's stats:

Olivia: 38 pounds
Zachary: 34 pounds
Madeline: 19 pounds, 13 ounces

So, they're all getting big and growing up so fast!!!
And then the girls needed some shots too. Not such a fun time. Maddie was brave, though, and went first. Two shots for her, and she cried for about 1 minute, then went into her stroller and ate some baby cookies. Then it was Olivia's turn: 4 shots; poor thing. But she did pretty good. Of course, she cried quite loudly and fussed and whined ALL THE WAY to the parking lot! Oh, the drama. And she kept repeating, "I don't like shots." Well, who does? Anyway, we got into the van and she was settling down, and I decided that really, we needed a little change of pace.

So we went to The French Fry House (aka McDonald's) for lunch. And I decided to go to the one with the Play Place. Well, we got out of the van, and I'm carrying Maddie, and Olivia is walking on her tiptoes/limping, saying, "I can't walk, Mama. My legs hurt so much! I can't walk" over and over again. So we order lunch and eat. The Play Place is all but abandoned. It was so weird; there was nobody there! Maybe it's too cold to venture out these days. So the kids played on the jungle gym for about an hour, pretty much having the whole thing to themselves! It was great!

And an amazing thing happened there. I don't know if it was the burgers or the fries or whatever, but Olivia was "miraculously" healed! And has been since!

This afternoon Livi and Zach and I made bread-in-a-bag. It was pretty fun! They each had their bag, and I added the ingredients and then they mixed them all up in their bags! And it just finished baking, so it smells really yummy! Haven't tasted it yet, though!

posted by Elena

Maddie's Walking!!!

The other day, she was standing in the middle of the room holding onto her blankie. I had just said to Olivia, "Oh, look at what a BIG GIRL Maddie is, standing all by herself!" To which Maddie just shoved her thumb in her mouth, held onto her blankie, and decided to go. She took about 10 steps, going about 1 foot across the floor! And we clapped and praised her. She was beaming, she was so proud of herself!

She doesn't seem to be as thrilled about the walking as we all were. She's maybe walked once since then. Crawling is still the preferred method of travel; it's just so much quicker and definitely more efficient!

posted by Elena

Random Olivia Quotes:

I'm a magical dream come true.
Yes, that's right, Olivia, you are... Nothing wrong with her ego! Oh, we are so definitely in the "princess" stage!

I'm so beautiful!

I am NOT a princess right now. I'm wearing jammies!
Apparently one can only be a princess when wearing the appropriate clothing!

I am NOT a princess; I am the KING of the princesses!
This was said one afternoon when she decided that since being a princess didn't prevent her from rest-time (nap), then she'd up the ante. Needless to say, it didn't quite have the effect that she'd hoped for.

Oh, this hat is broken! There is a big hole in it. We need to throw it away; this hat is BROKEN!!!
This was actually said early this winter when she was helping Daddy put his winter hat away, and it actually made it into the trash before I caught it. It's one of those hats that go over the whole face with just a hole for the face.

I'm my own best friend...
Quote from Spaceballs - yes, it was on TV and the kids fell in love with this movie about space! Also from this movie:
Smoke if you got 'em.
Scott and I burst into laughter when she came up with this one! Kind of embarrassing. And thanks to this movie, a new phrase Olivia has also learned is:
We do not say naughty words!
So we do not watch this movie very much here anymore, even though it is hilarious! When I first heard a naughty word, the second thing I thought was, gosh I hope she doesn't say this in preschool! I would just die! I did not remember, prior to having kids, that there were so many naughty words in this movie. It was just on TV one night and I hadn't seen it in ages, so we watched it (the clean version). And then the kids loved it, and we own the VHS, so we put it on one day and got an earful... Note to selves: we need to screen movies BEFORE letting the kids watch!!!

And I know there are more gems coming out of this kid's mouth; I just need to write them down when she says them!

posted by Elena